Responsible Adults
by Scrawlers
Summary: Yuugi and Jounouchi are adults now, living on their own, and that means that they must do adult things like grocery shopping. Still, nineteen year old boys will be nineteen year old boys, and so long as they do the adult thing in the end, that doesn't mean they can't have a little fun with it in the meanwhile, right? [Post-Canon] [Wishshipping]
**Notes:** I wrote this on August 2nd of last year because August 2nd is friendship day, and there is no greater bond than that between Jounouchi and Yuugi. That said, I decided to upload all of my Wishshipping fics to FF.N today (instead of just the spattering of them that I uploaded before), so here, have this.

This is post-canon, obviously, and takes place in my usual headcanon of how they got an apartment together near Yuugi's university.

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 **Responsible Adults**

* * *

"This was a bad idea."

Yuugi turned back and looked at Jounouchi in confusion, but Jounouchi wasn't looking at him. Instead, Jounouchi's eyes were scanning the aisles that stretched out in front of them, each one packed with row upon row of various food items, ranging from dried noodles in one center aisle to produce stands on the far right. Yuugi looked at the grocery items for a minute before he looked back at Jounouchi.

"What's wrong?" Yuugi asked.

Jounouchi fixed Yuugi with a grave stare. "I'm starving," he said. "I want to eat _everything_."

Yuugi couldn't help but laugh at the seriousness of Jounouchi's expression and tone, and he held up the grocery list they'd made before leaving the apartment. "Maybe let's start with the things on the list," he said. "And even then, maybe let's wait until we at least after we pay for them to eat them. We don't want to get thrown out and banned from ever coming back. The only other grocery store I know of is miles away."

"Yeah, yeah," Jounouchi said, and he heaved an exaggerated sigh. "So, what's first on the list?"

"Well . . ." Yuugi looked at the list, but as his eyes scanned the items they'd scrawled onto the sheet of notebook paper, he frowned. He hadn't realized it when they were writing it, but . . .

"What's up?" Jounouchi asked.

Yuugi pressed his lips together and hummed a little before he walked over to show the list to Jounouchi. "This list is a little, um . . . I think we might be in some trouble."

The list, had its purpose been to serve as a comprehensive list of their favorite foods, honestly wasn't so bad. The problem, Yuugi thought, was that most of the items on it probably couldn't be purchased wholesale from the grocery store. Whether it was due to their hunger or their thoughts being on dinner, they had written down whole _meals_ instead of the ingredients necessary to make them. Jounouchi examined the list for a few seconds before he shrugged.

"What's the problem?"

"Can we buy burgers?" Yuugi asked. "I mean, if we went to Burger World, yeah, but—"

"I'm sure they sell burger patties or something," Jounouchi said. "And if not, so what? We'll make it up as we go along. Nothing wrong with that."

"For you, maybe," Yuugi said, but his tone was teasing. "All right, well, we came this far. We can at least use the list as a reference point. Besides, there's so much food here it would be boring if we ignored it solely for things on the list, right?"

"Exactly!" Jounouchi punched his fist into his opposite palm, an excited grin splitting his cheeks, before he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Hang on, let me get us a cart. Probably we're going to need one."

"Good call," Yuugi said, but Jounouchi had already jogged back through the grocery store doors to the cart rack outside. Yuugi watched as Jounouchi retrieved a cart from the cart corral and then sprinted back toward the grocery store doors, jumping on the front of the cart (his feet on the bottom rack) so that he could ride its momentum back through the doors to Yuugi. Jounouchi hopped off when he caught back up, his hands still gripping the handle, his smile broader than ever.

"All right, let's do this!" he said, but even as Yuugi nodded his agreement, Jounouchi's smile shifted to a more speculative expression, and his eyes flicked from Yuugi, to the cart, and back again. "Hey, Yuugi . . ."

"What is it?"

"I bet you could fit in there," Jounouchi said, and he pointed toward the basket of the cart. Previously, Yuugi had felt a bit amused with Jounouchi's antics with the cart, but now he felt a thread of annoyance weave through him.

"No, I couldn't."

"Bet you could," Jounouchi insisted. "C'mon, it'll be fun, I'll push you—"

"I'm not a kid!" Yuugi said, loudly enough for several other customers to look over. Yuugi's cheeks reddened, but Jounouchi seemed not to notice.

"I never said you were," Jounouchi said, "mostly 'cause I know you're not. But come on, it'll be fun! I'd ride in it if I could fit—"

"Can we just get this over with, please?" Yuugi said, and he waved the list in the air again. "You're really hungry, right? The faster we finish, the sooner you can eat."

For a brief moment, surprise laced with disappointment flashed across Jounouchi's face, and he nodded. "Yeah, you're right," he said, and started to push the cart toward the left side of the store, toward the produce section, despite the fact that neither of them had marked any fruits or vegetables down on their list. "Let's do it."

Yuugi followed along with Jounouchi, and as they passed through the produce section to head toward the bread aisle, he couldn't help but feel a bit bad. Jounouchi hadn't been trying to make fun of him, he knew—they were long since past that, had been for years—but the growth spurt Yuugi had dreamed of had never really hit him, and the fact that he probably _was_ still small and light enough to be easily pushed around inside the grocery cart stung his pride a little. Jounouchi understood, Yuugi thought—or at least, he _would_ understand, if Yuugi explained it later—and that was why he had dropped it. It wasn't a big deal, Yuugi was sure, Jounouchi's feelings weren't hurt—

"Hey," Jounouchi said, and Yuugi nearly bumped into him as he stopped the cart by a section of breakfast muffins and pastries. "Are bagels on the list?"

"Um . . ." Yuugi scanned the list clutched in his fingers, and then shook his head. "No, doesn't look like it."

Jounouchi reached up and swiped two rolls of bagels off the shelf and dropped them carelessly in the cart before he looked over at Yuugi with a grin. "They are now," he said, and Yuugi returned Jounouchi's grin as he reached over to grab a loaf of bread off the shelf next to the bagels.

"This too," he said, and Jounouchi nodded as Yuugi dropped the bread in the cart.

Yeah, everything was fine.

"Guess we should get a few other breakfast things too, right?" Jounouchi said. "You know, something besides bagels and toast for when we have more time in the mornings. What's that people usually eat when they have whole breakfasts and stuff? Stuff like eggs, or rice . . ."

"Rice and eggs are a good start, yeah," Yuugi said, "and they're pretty easy to make. Want to get some?"

"Definitely," Jounouchi said, but he laughed a little as he leaned against the cart's handle. "But I also kinda wanna get _everything_ right now, so . . ."

"Let's start with the rice and eggs," Yuugi said, echoing his words from the front of the store. "Let's see, rice is probably one or two aisles over since it's a grain, and eggs would be with the dairy down at the other end of the store . . ."

They found the rice in the very next aisle over, and after debating which brand they should buy (Yuugi recognized one brand as the kind his mother preferred, but it was surprisingly expensive, and as Jounouchi pointed out they needed to watch their budget), they looped back out of the aisle so that they could head down toward the dairy section, only for Jounouchi to abruptly pause once again. Yuugi looked over to find that Jounouchi was once again eying him speculatively.

"Hey," Jounouchi said, and nodded his head toward the cart. "Hop on. Not _in_ ," he said quickly, when Yuugi opened his mouth to protest. " _On_. On the back, you know? Like how I was riding on the front before."

Yuugi frowned uncertainly. "I don't think that's really necessary," he said slowly, and Jounouchi sighed. "Can't we just walk it?"

"We _could_ , but that's _boring_ and we have a clear shot from here to the dairy section," Jounouchi said. "Come on, what's the big deal? I wanna see how fast I can push it with you on it. We can try when we have all our groceries in there, too. I'm even gonna hop on myself once we get enough speed, though I'll probably have to push us a couple times to keep us going." Yuugi's wavering resolve must have shown on his face, for Jounouchi grinned and nudged Yuugi's ankle with his foot, and his voice took on a more goading tone. "C'mon, Yuugi, you know you want to . . ."

Yuugi _did_ want to. Riding _in_ the cart felt childish and embarrassing, but riding _on_ it was tempting; Yuugi would be lying if he said it didn't look fun when Jounouchi had done it before. There was still no real reason to do it, he knew—they were there to grocery shop, and causing too much of a ruckus could get them thrown out—but it looked fun, and with Jounouchi egging him on like that, he found it hard to say no. Yuugi failed to bite back his grin as he nodded and looped around to jump on the back of the cart, his feet planted securely on the rack on the bottom while his fingers gripped the metal end of the basket. He pulled one hand away to point down toward the other end of the store in a very similar gesture to how he would call an attack in Duel Monsters, and declared, "To the dairy section!"

"Hell yeah!" Jounouchi cheered, and pushed off into a dead sprint. Yuugi gripped the basket with both hands again, and pulled himself up against the metal as they flew past the various aisles, more than one fellow grocery store patron quickly stepping back to avoid being run over by their cart. As promised, Jounouchi hopped on the front again once they reached the midway point, their momentum easily carrying them down the length of the store. Yuugi felt bad for the fellow shoppers who had to hasten to clear out of their way, but between the wild swoop in his stomach from the sudden push of the cart (and the sudden stop as well, when Jounouchi swerved so that they avoided crashing into the milk case) and Jounouchi's grin, Yuugi found that it was hard to feel _too_ guilty about what they were doing, particularly since no one got hurt.

"That was a close one," Jounouchi said, and he knocked his fist lightly against the door of the milk case. All the same, when he looked over at Yuugi it was with a raised eyebrow and triumphant smile. "But hey, it was fun, right?"

"Yeah," Yuugi agreed, and Jounouchi's grin probably could have kept their apartment lit for a month. "We'll have to try again when we have more groceries in like you said before. We probably won't be able to go as fast, though."

"We'll see about that," Jounouchi said, and he turned his eyes back to the milk case. "So let's see. We should probably get some milk, and the eggs like you said before . . ."

Yuugi retrieved the eggs while Jounouchi grabbed a carton of milk, and the rest of their grocery shopping followed in much the same fashion: Yuugi riding on the back of the cart, Jounouchi racing them around from aisle to aisle, both of them hopping off and doing their best to appear mature, responsible, and not at all like they had been previously engaging in shenanigans or were about to start laughing when grocery store employees happened to spot them. But even though they spent much of their time in the store cart racing, Yuugi would maintain that they could at least say they did what they came to the store to do, and even put actual thought in the task. While it was easy to toss chips and soda into their basket, they spent a decent amount of time pondering over various ingredients, wondering if they would actually be able to make the meals they were buying ingredients for. (Yuugi reasoned that they could probably handle simple things, like okonomiyaki, but that other dishes, such as sukiyaki, probably took more skill than they currently had, even if the meals looked simple enough on the surface.) In the end, Yuugi figured the time they spent deliberating over their cooking ability probably worked in their favor. Sure, they raced their cart from aisle to aisle, but so long as they were productive once they reached their destination the store employees couldn't get _too_ angry, right?

By the time they were done, their cart was stuffed full of various food items, many of which fell into the "junk food" category that Yuugi's mom loved to talk down on. Once again they had a clear break from one end of the store to the other, and although Yuugi knew that the only thing left to do was to pay for their groceries, he also knew that they were not about to leave until Jounouchi made good on his promise. Dutifully, Yuugi hopped on the back of the cart, and fixed Jounouchi with a solemn stare.

"No matter what happens," he said, "know that the most important thing is that you try your best, Jounouchi-kun. Even if we don't go as fast as the first time—"

"We will."

"—and even if we crash—"

"We won't."

"—know that so long as we try, it was good enough." Yuugi extended one fist to Jounouchi across the cart, and Jounouchi quickly bumped his own fist against it. "Ready?"

"If you are," Jounouchi said, and he placed both hands on the grocery cart handle again, twisting his hands around it as though revving a motorcycle engine. Yuugi nodded, and looked down the length of the grocery store before he once again pointed at their destination.

"Then _full steam ahead_!"

Once again, Jounouchi took off at a dead sprint, though this time the cart was heavier, and their start was slower. Jounouchi must have noticed the added resistance, for he gave the cart a rough shove to push it ahead of him a few paces, before he all but threw his body weight against it in a full charge. It was enough; by the time they reached the midway point they were going just as fast as before, and this time Jounouchi didn't bother to jump on until Yuugi was sure they were going at least a _little_ faster than they had been previously.

"Hey, you kids! Stop!"

As one, both Yuugi and Jounouchi looked to see the grocery store manager headed their way, an expression on his rounded face that made it look like he was ready to chew rocks. Unfortunately, with both Yuugi and Jounouchi looking at the manager, neither of them were watching where they were going; by the time Yuugi looked back and shouted, "Jounouchi-kun!" to get his attention, they were barreling toward the vegetable display with too much speed to stop. Jounouchi tried to swerve, but while Yuugi was able to leap off the back of the cart to avoid being smashed between it and the vegetable display, the cart still smashed into hard enough to knock some pre-packaged carrot sticks and broccoli bunches into their cart.

One look at the manager told Yuugi that this did not help them earn his favor.

"What do you think this is?" the manager demanded, once he was near enough to be within comfortable earshot. Jounouchi plucked the vegetables from their cart and slowly pulled their cart away from the vegetable display. "Some sort of playground? I've had about enough of you punks, customers have been complaining all day—"

"Hey, Yuugi's not a punk," Jounouchi said.

"We're really sorry," Yuugi said, and he scratched the back of his neck. "We just got, um, carried away—"

"Where are your parents?" the manager demanded.

Yuugi frowned. "Well, we moved out recently, but I guess my mom would be at home—"

"My mom doesn't live in Domino, and you don't want to talk to my dad," Jounouchi said. The manager looked like he didn't know whether he wanted to swat both of them upside their heads for what he seemed to think was back sass, or whether he wanted to banish them from his sight without further questioning. Finally, he huffed.

"Look, I'm not in the practice of banning people from my store," he said, "but I can't have you destroying things. No more cart racing, got it? Business is hard enough nowadays without a couple of punk kids scaring off my customers—"

"I told you, Yuugi's not a punk!" Jounouchi said loudly.

"Just—buy whatever it is you've got there, and get out, all right?" the manager said. Jounouchi bristled at the way the manager ignored him. "Come back when you've grown up some."

"Yes, sir," Yuugi said, and though he had half a mind to point out that they weren't exactly _kids_ , he knew better than to argue when they were already catching a break. The manager turned and stalked away, and Yuugi looked over at Jounouchi, who was still glaring at the manager's retreating back. After a second, Yuugi said, "Well, that went better than we had any right to expect, right? At least we didn't get kicked out."

"Yeah, but only because he still wants his money," Jounouchi grumbled, but he sighed and mussed his hair as he looked back to Yuugi. "Sorry, Yuugi. For crashing, and also for . . ." He raised one hand and waved it aimlessly in the air for a moment before he let it fall. "Even if we didn't actually get kicked out, guess I almost got us thrown out anyway, huh?"

"I agreed to it," Yuugi said. "And hey, we did go faster than the first time, even if we did crash, so it wasn't a total failure. We'll just have to be more discreet next time."

"Next time?"

"The manager didn't ban us, right? So . . ."

Jounouchi grinned, and Yuugi, relieved to see his best friend's smile back, grinned in response. "Right," Jounouchi said. "C'mon, let's go pay for this stuff and get out of here."

The cashier at the check-out line glared at them as they approached, and Yuugi wondered whether the manager had filled her in on their antics, or if she'd witnessed them rampaging about the store earlier. Whatever the case, she said nothing as they put their items up on the register for her to scan, nor did she do anything more than sigh when they scrambled for the money to pay her with, for the total ended up being a bit more than they thought.

"My grandpa did give me some money," Yuugi said, as Jounouchi reached down into his shoe and pulled out another wad of bills. "We could always use that . . ."

"Nah, I don't want to put Gramps out like that," Jounouchi said, and he handed over the fistful of crumpled yen notes over to the cashier. "Is this enough?"

The cashier made a face, no doubt having scruples against touching money that had been stuffed into someone's shoes, but smoothed the bills out and nodded once she had counted through them.

"Have a nice day," she said through a wooden smile, as she handed Yuugi their receipt. Yuugi stuffed it into his pocket along with the long-since ignored grocery list, and after they gathered up their bags (another employee had come by to take their cart away, perhaps out of concern that they'd ride it back through the doors again), they headed out to the parking lot where Jounouchi had left his bike. As they reached it, Yuugi slowed, a frown once again tugging at his lips.

"We . . . might have miscalculated," he said.

Jounouchi paused and looked back at him. "What?"

"Are we really going to be able to carry all of this back on your bike?" Yuugi asked, as Jounouchi shrugged and started looping the grocery bags onto his bike handles. "It's a lot. Maybe if we ask they'll let us make two trips . . ."

"Nah, it'll be fine. Here, put some of your bags in the paper basket," Jounouchi said. Yuugi did as Jounouchi requested, but not even Jounouchi's newspaper basket was big enough, and he still had two bags left over. "Think you can hang onto those while we ride?"

"Yeah," Yuugi said, and—apparently thinking that was good enough—Jounouchi swung his leg over the bike. "But are you sure—?"

"It'll be fine," Jounouchi said, and he sounded a little exasperated. "C'mon, hop on and let's get home, huh? I'm still starving, you know. I didn't even swipe any cookies from the bakery."

"Probably for the best, considering," Yuugi said, and he smiled a little as he clambered onto the back of the bike, his feet planted firmly on the pegs, his hands on Jounouchi's shoulders. The remaining two grocery bags were looped around Yuugi's wrists, one on each hand, and he tried not to think about the ridiculous amount looped around Jounouchi's handlebars. "All right, is this good?"

"Just right," Jounouchi said. "Hold on tight." The bike wobbled unsteadily as Jounouchi pushed off, but after a few seconds he made it steady, guiding them out of the grocery store parking lot and back onto the street toward home.


End file.
